Pornography = the scourge of our generation

The Deseret News has been running a series of articles detailing the real and damaging effects of pornography on our society. It's compelling reading. We've heard it for years from our church leaders and now more and more of society is getting on board, realizing the societal costs. Parents need to be fully aware of the evil that is so accessible in the comfort of their own homes. I feel that parents need to take every precaution that is necessary to protect their families from this hideous and descructive vice. It ruins marriages, families and the spirit and psyche of people who participate in it. It's the scourge of our modern society that leads to many of the other social ills that are becoming more and more common.

"A recently released study of pornography cites its damaging effects on mind, body and heart.

Titled "The Effects of Pornography on Individuals, Marriage, Family and Community," the study was authored by Patrick F. Fagan, a Family Research Council senior fellow and director of its Center for Research on Marriage and Religion.

"Pornography is a visual representation of sexuality which distorts an individual's concept of the nature of conjugal relations," wrote Fagan. "This, in turn, alters both sexual attitudes and behavior. It is a major threat to marriage, to family, to children and to individual happiness. In undermining marriage, it is one of the factors in undermining social stability."

Study says porn damages mind, heart - link here.

New initiative sheds light on pornography's impact on families - link here

Is porn a real addiction? - link here

Pornography 'grips you with claws' - link here

A generation gap in understanding porn of today - link here

Pornography research generates hate mail - link here.

"Those who are fearful, those who are addicted, those who are anxious are powerfully working against (efforts to understand pornography's effects)," she said. "There is an attempt in the industry to silence anyone who will talk. So every time I do an interview with a reporter, every time there's an article in the newspaper, I'll get hate mail.

"I'm an academic — and I get hate mail!"

Joseph Price, a BYU economics professor who specializes in distilling down large data sets dealing with pornography consumption, concurs with Layden's assessment that a gap still remains between establishing correlation and proving causation in the context of pornography's ability to harm the human psyche. Price, though, goes on to suggest that pornography research could follow a path to proving causation of negative consequences similar to that taken by the tobacco studies of yesteryear.

"Current studies don't necessarily speak to a causal effect of pornography, but they are suggestive of that," Price said. "I think that future research is going to better help us understand the causal effect of pornography on people. And in that sense, I view it as very similar to the research that was done a long time ago about tobacco. It actually took us a long time to come to an understanding of the causal impact of smoking on people's health."

Regardless of the road academics tread while continuing to study pornography's effects on individuals and society, Layden expects her steady flow of unhappy e-mails and letters to continue unabated.

"There's a backlash against those of us who speak out and say, 'Here's the research,' or those who do the research (about pornography)," she said. "Either interests that are moneyed or interests that are addicted or interests that are fearful or interests that are ignorant of the effect — they're all working against this."

The LDS church has launched a new web site called "Combating Pornography - replacing darkness with light" Check it out here. It has many good resources for addicts, spouses, families and others who are trying to help.

Andy at 22

Today my baby boy turns 22. Wow. Here are 22 things I love about him ~

1. He has the best heart.

2. He is fun to be around. There is never a dull moment. He keeps us up to date on current trends and happenings.

3. I love his friends. They are great young men.

4. He gets up and keeps going even when there are set backs...he doesn't give up.

5. He knows how to do hard things and he doesn't shy away from a challenge.

6. He has a ton of friends...everyone likes Andy.

7. He knows what is important in life and he stays grounded.

8. He tries to help people around him. Sometimes they let him, sometimes they don't.

9. He's a good looking young man who has his own sense of style.

10. He is funny and is always looking for funny things in life.

11. He's always been a great sleeper - once he gets to bed.

12. He is a hard worker and is responsible at his employment.

13. He has proven to himself that he can accomplish anything he sets his mind to. He can do hard things.

14. He is a friend to the underdog.

15. He LOVES his 4 nieces and enjoys hearing little stories about their growth and progress. He's so cute with them.

16. He "gets it." He has a strong testimony and he understands the importance of the gospel of Jesus Christ in his life.

17. He likes adventure and doing thrilling stuff. He is kind of fearless. He has broken bones to prove it.

18. He likes to take his parents better cars whenever possible and dislikes "his" car.

19. He loves anything Mongolian. Yesterday he got to speak to a Mongolian sister missionary for awhile and it brought him such joy to speak Mongolian again and to hear it well spoken.

20. He's a great son and brother. He loves to spend time with his family.

21. He's figuring out what he wants to do for a career and making steps toward a bright future.

22. He's loves his mom and dad and he knows that we trust him. He has earned that trust.

Happy 22nd son. I love you!!!

For more pictures see here for 2009 and here for 2008.

Alma 5

I read Alma 5 again a few days ago. I can't stop thinking about it. It's such a powerful chapter. I makes me want to do better and be better. It holds such wisdom and gems, such as:

~Behold, he changed their hearts; yea, he awakened them out of a deep sleep, and they awoke unto God.
~nevertheless, their souls were illuminated by the light of the everlasting word;
~according to his faith there was a mighty change wrought in his heart. Behold I say unto you that this is all true.
~And behold, he preached the word unto your fathers, and a mighty change was also wrought in their hearts, and they humbled themselves and put their trust in the true and living God. And behold, they were faithful until the end; therefore they were saved.
~Have ye received his image in your countenances?
~Come unto me ye blessed, for behold, your works have been the works of righteousness upon the face of the earth?
~his garments must be purified until they are cleansed from all stain, through the blood of him of whom it has been spoken by our fathers, who should come to redeem his people from their sins.
~bring forth works of righteousness,
~And now if ye are not the sheep of the good shepherd, of what fold are ye?
~ you that are desirous to follow the voice of the good shepherd, come ye out from the wicked, and be ye separate,

Coming down the home stretch

While we were gone to Denver, the workers made good progress.
Tile in the bathrooms, laundry room and around the living room fireplace- check
Painting - check (this took a month and about killed us all off, including the painter)
Electricians returned to install canned lighting and switch plates - check
Plumber resetting the toilets – check today

Now on to the hardwood floor & then the finish carpenter will put on the moldings in all the upstairs rooms. He is also going to build a railing on the stairs going into the the garage and fix the corroded and rusted metal railing on the front porch! Two more items that needed doing and we have workman around who can do them. Hooray!
Last part - the arrival of the furniture and the decorating of the rooms. That will be the funnest part of all!

Since the pictures were so small last post (because I took them off Courtney’s and Claire’s Picasa shared photos) I’ll make these pictures larger!

   

 

Rocky Mountain high

Over the last weekend, we enjoyed being together in Denver and Colorado Springs, taking in some sporting events and just hanging out. Claire (the best travel planner of all time) got us the hook-ups at the Marriott Residence Inn and she even brought a homemade dinner to feed us the first night consisting of all her signature dishes - Hawaiian haystacks, banana bread, the BEST guacamole dip and chips, and fruit salad. Thanks Claire! We enjoyed looking around Denver, visiting the capital building that is one mile high in altitude, going on a tour of the US Mint and seeing about a billion coins in production, going to the outlet mall, visiting the US Olympic training facility, tailgating with some of R and Claire's friends from their home town and of course attending the BYU-Air Force football game. I got to tend the little girl cousins at the hotel while everyone went to the game. We all took a nap. I think I got the better end of the stick on that deal. We enjoyed attending church on Sunday together and we had a wonderful family weekend. That weekend will fill my reserves for a few months now until we meet again! I love my family!